XXIV
40 THE BURGUNDIAN CODE 4. If anyone's pigs have done damage in a vineyard, in the meadows, in the tilled fields, or in the acorn-bearing forests, and the master of the pigs has been warned twice that he must guard his pigs, and he does not wish to, let him to whom they did the damage have the power to kill the best from the herd of pigs and turn it to his own use. 5. But if there is no contest (i.e.,the master has not been warned), and so the man damaged kills the pig, let him pay a solidusfor the pig, with the further provision that that which the pigs have destroyed will be compounded. XXIV OF BURGUNDIAN WOMEN ENTEF~NG A SECOND OR THIRD MARRIAGE . I. If any Burgundian woman, as is the custom, enters a second or third marriage after the death of her husband, and she has children by each husband, let her possess the marriage gift (donatio nuptialis) in usufruct while she lives; after her death, let what his father gave her be given to each son, with the further provision that the mother has the power neither of giving, selling, or transferring any of the things which she received in the marriage gift. 2. If by chance the woman has no children, after her death let her relatives receive half of whatever has come to her by way of marriage gift, and let the relatives of the dead husband who was the donor receive half. 3. But if perchance children shall have been born and they shall have died after the death of their father, we command that the inheritance of the husband or children belong whollyto the mother. Moreover, after the death of the mother, we decree that what she holds in usufruct by inheritance from her children shall belong to the legal heirs of her children. Also we command that she protect the property of her children dying intestate. 4. If any son has given his mother something by will or by gift, let the mother have the power of doing whatever she wishes therewith; if she dies intestate, let the relatives of the woman claim the inheritance as their possession. BOOK OF CONSTITUTIONS 41 5. If any Burgundian has sons (children?) to whom he has given their portions, let him have the power of giving or selling that which he has reserved for himself to whomever he wishes. xxv 1. If anyone enters a garden with violence, let him pay three solidi for such presumption to him to whom the garden belongs, and let the fine be six solidi. 2. If a slave does this, let him receive a hundred blows. XXVI OF KNOCIUNG OUT TEETH. I. If anyone by chance strikes out the teeth of a Burgundian of the highest class, or of a Roman noble, let him be compelled to pay fifteen solidi. 2. For middle-classfreeborn people, either Burgundian or Roman, if a tooth is knocked out, let composition be made in the sum of ten solidi. 3. For persons of the lowest class, five so1idi.l 1 The divisions of Burgundian and Roman society in the realm of the Burgundians are not at all clear. In addition to the royal servants and officials mentioned in the reface, Constitutiones Extrauagantes XXII, 14, and various laws throughout %e Ler Gundobada, we have a more general division of all society into free and unfree with the coloni or originad occupying a halfway position between those who were free and those who were not f~ee. The present law, XXVI, deals with four classes of free men: the hi hest, middle, and lowest classes of men who were free from birth; and the ,% eedmen or slaves who had been emancipated by their masters or who had earned their freedom in some way. The freedman is obviously quite low in the social scale when we observe these tariffs, but the children of freedmen were regarded as freemen , and even the freedman himself might gain that status following the death of his former master (cf. XL, 2 ) . However, we have no indication as to how the distinctions among the freemen were determined. We may assume that the nobles, the optimates, constituted the highest class, but as for the two lower classes, there is no basis for the distinction stated anywhere in the Lex Gundobada, although from the tenor of the laws it seems that the middle class was...
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